


Broken Mind

by EnigmaSecrets



Category: Transformers: Prime
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-12
Updated: 2019-10-09
Packaged: 2020-06-26 16:52:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19772428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EnigmaSecrets/pseuds/EnigmaSecrets
Summary: When Airachnid doesn't step into a stasis pod, Megatron must hunt her down himself to regain control of the insecticons. A three way battle ensues and ends with Arcee missing in action, Airachnid left for dead, and Megatron... victorious? Rated T for giant robots doing battle. (What can I say? Megatron's a violent dude.)





	1. Lost

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Transformers Prime, because if I did the third season would not have been quite so disappointing. I, however, wouldn't change the final battle for the world. This story starts in the episode “Armada”.

Airachnid had just set into motion her second attempt on Megatron’s life when she heard the autobots’ plotting. Airachnid peered up at them before sending them a knowing smirk. “Rear guard, engage the autobots,” she purred. No insecticon should have been able to hear the command given the distance.

And, yet, two dozen insecticons did a three-sixty, all the while howling for the energon of the enemies of their queen. They fired upon the autobots, initiating a huge explosion, but the blast was drowned out by the roaring of an engine. Arcee tore out of the smoke and jumped the cliff that separated her from her archenemy.

Airachnid hissed in frustration before turning tail to lead Arcee away from her team. As she ran, Airachnid sent two insecticons after Arcee, hoping to put some distance between them. After all, she worked best from the shadows when ambushing her prey. Airachnid studied the trees around her. “If I attach my web there, and tie it off there, then I’ll be able to-,” Airachnid’s train of thought was disrupted as she looked up just in time to see an insecticon collide with her. “NO!” 

Arcee rushed over to where Airachnid had fallen, but found a sizable hole instead. Drilling could be heard from deep within. “Underground. Now there’s a surprise,” she stated before jumping down after Airachnid.”

Airachnid burrowed her way down to the insecticon hive. She knew Arcee would follow her right into her carefully laid trap. Arcee had become decidedly more reckless as of late. Airachnid easily scaled the cavern wall and cackled quietly to herself. Soon. Very soon. The femme was sure of it. She would have Arcee’s spark along with any other autobots’s she could get her servos on. He had stolen everything from her. Now, she would take everything from them. 

Arcee had a sense of déjà vu as she once again found herself following Airachnid into the depths of the Earth. A deadly tranquility overtook her. The Killing Calm. There would be no escape for the rogue assassin this time. 

Arcee landed at the bottom of the pit and found herself in a cavern full of insecticons in stasis pods. Apparently, the swarm Airachnid sent to terminate Megatron hadn’t been the last of the beasts. Arcee began to stealthily wander the cave, never once lowering her blasters. She strained her audios and caught the click of blades on stone and the humming whirr of blasters being activated. Airachnid’s reflection flashed across the metallic surface of a stasis pod and Arcee lunged to the side just in time to avoid a round of gunfire.

With a scream, Arcee unleashed a barrage of bullets that hit Airachnid collapsing the wall she had been standing on. Airachnid landed in a heap, but Arcee never gave her a chance to recover. She rushed her archenemy with an unrelenting attack. The two femmes fought servo to servo before Arcee pressed her advantage. The blue cybertronian lashed out with her pede and sent Airachnid reeling back.

Airachnid stumbled onto an open stasis pod. Her lightning reflexes caused her to dive off the platform and she was able to avoid imprisonment. At least most of her was. Pain raced through her body as one of her spider legs was severed, and she welcomed it. 

Suddenly Arcee swiped out and knocked the black and purple femme off her pedes. Airachnid landed on her back and instinctively brought her spider legs in to protect herself, but Arcee easily brushed past her defenses and had her at gun point within seconds.

“It’s over,” Arcee snarled with a murderous look and a charging blaster. Airachnid couldn’t help but laugh aloud. She didn’t fear joining the All-Spark nor did she care enough to save herself. Not anymore.

“Make it hurt,” Airachnid requested. Agony had been her constant companion and only friend for eons. It forced her to forget the events of that single day that had ruined her life and crushed her spark into fragments too tiny to ever even begin to heal. Her processor, unwillingly, conjured up the image of a grinning green youngling so full of life until… he wasn’t. Airachnid schooled her features into her typical sadistic smile. “You know I would extend the same courtesy to you.” Emotion was weakness, and she would not show Arcee any. Not ever.

“I’m not like you,” Arcee hissed as she leveled her blaster and prepared to fire. Suddenly the entire cavern began to shake wildly. Arcee lurched away from where she stood over the black femme. Airachnid, ever the opportunist, decided now would be the perfect time to make her escape. She had started drilling into the rocky earth, when a sleek silver cybertronian jet purposefully hit her at top speed and slammed her into the cavern wall. 

Airachnid moaned and clutched at her helm. She wasn’t sure if the cavern was still trembling from the jet recklessly flying down here or if it was just her, but she was currently seeing two Megatrons looming over her. As if her day hadn’t been bad enough already. “Well, well, well,” she heard the gladiator growl, “an ex-decepticon and an autobot. I will take your sparks as consolation for the recent disturbances.”

Airachnid shook her helm and her vision finally cleared just in time to see Megatron raise a pede. She rolled to the right and barely avoided becoming a smear on the bottom his tread. Airachnid rose unsteadily and leapt away from him. She knew all too well that close combat with Megatron was suicide. On the other side of the cave Arcee recovered from the shocking appearance of the leader of the decepticons and began to fire round after round at him.

As much as Airachnid hated to admit it, she was clearly the lesser threat in this instance from the autobot’s perspective. Most of Arcee’s shots glanced off Megatron’s near impenetrable armor, and both femmes knew this was a losing battle. But, while Airachnid was still hoping for someway to escape, Arcee courageously engaged the warlord in battle. 

Arcee appeared to dance around Megatron’s strikes while firing her blasters at close range. They were almost as ineffective as they were at long range. No one, not even Arcee, could evade Megatron for long though. Megatron hefted his fusion cannon and fired it at the autobot warrior. The cannon was very effective at close range. Arcee was sent flying through the air and hit the ground hard before skidding to a stop with a soft moan.

As Airachnid backed away from her enemies one of her servos brushed against an insecticon pod. She emitted a low frequency, and the insecticon awoke from stasis. But something was wrong, Airachnid soon discovered as a bolt of pain shot through her processor. The insecticon seemed reluctant to do her bidding, but Airachnid was relentless. Despite her ever increasing helm ache, the rogue forced the insecticon to her will.

Megatron dramatically raised his blade above his head in preparation to offline the autobot femme, when a huge force tackled him from behind. Megatron flipped around and threw the insecticon off him, but could not stop himself from hitting the stone cavern wall. The impact made the entire cave shudder, but the decepticon overlord ignored it. The insecticon howled and charged him again, but it didn’t stand a chance against him. With two deft slashes of his sword, Megatron left the bug in pieces.

Suddenly, Megatron’s left arm was pinned to cavern wall by a blast of webbing. He sliced himself free and turned to smiled humorlessly at Airachnid. His shark-like teeth visible for all to see. “You’ll have to do better than that.” Faster than she thought physically possible, Megatron was at her side and had clamped a servo around her midriff. She twisted in his grip and managed to kick him in the jaw, but it didn’t phase him in the slightest. 

Arcee struggled to her pedes. Her shoulder was badly burned from Megatron’s cannon but she began firing at him once more. And, hey, if she happened to hit Airachnid, that was just an added bonus. Megatron powered up his fusion cannon, but Arcee was ready and easily dodged his shots. The cavern was not so lucky as a fissure opened up and boulders rained down upon the three Cybertronians. In the confusion, Megatron dropped Airachnid and she fell like a rag doll from his grasp.

Airachnid’s vision blurred as she tried to stand, and she felt unconsciousness pulling at her. Only her instincts to flee kept her upright. Dust and debris swirled around her, and she lost sight of both Megatron and Arcee. Or maybe she was the one who had vanished within the cloud. Airachnid’s processor began to throb incessantly. Why couldn’t she think straight?

There was a reason she hadn’t burrowed away yet, but her thoughts were hazy and sluggish. Airachnid stumbled forwards and racked her processor. It had something to do with Megatron… and Arcee… right? Something landed heavily on one of her spider legs and jerked her to a halt. Airachnid blinked once at stone entrapping her leg before her self-preservation took over. She wrench herself free and ran for where she suspected the exit, but instead collided with something large and silver.

Airachnid tumbled to the ground as a rock fell from the ceiling and pinned her non-spider legs beneath. She squirmed, but could find no leverage. Megatron watched on with a cruel smile as Airachnid was buried alive. The last thing Airachnid saw was Arcee’s limp form laying at the feet of the tyrant in a pool of energon. The spider femme hissed at him as the suffocating darkness closed in around her and she lost all sense of self. 

“Here lies the most treacherous decepticon to have ever entered the Nemesis, at least, right after Starscream,” Megatron quipped before plunging his blade into pile of rumble. Airachnid gave a satisfying little whimper, as he retracted his energon covered sword.

“The insecticons have ceased their assault of the Nemesis, my liege,” Knockout’s voice came over Megatron’s comm.

“Very good. I shall return shortly.”

“I hate insecticons,” Megatron heard Knockout rant, clearly oblivious that his comm was still on. “Filthy vermin that scratch my new paintjo-,” Megatron shook his helm and turned off his own comm.

“Soundwave,” Megatron opened a new com channel with his communications chief, “I require a ground bridge, and prepare a holding cell.” Though Soundwave didn’t respond, Megatron knew the loyal mech had heard and acknowledged him. A ground bridge opened a few feet away, and Megatron dragged the autobot femme behind him. The bridge closed and the cavern was plunged into darkness and silence. The only movement came from the trickle of energon seeping out from beneath a pile of rubble.


	2. All in Your Helm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter, my OC, Enigma Secrets, will make an appearance. Enigma does have a little magic, but as this is Transformers, it will be kept to a minimum. Enigma is not me, just my namesake, and she won't make very many appearances.

Airachnid’s optics fluttered open and she sat up cautiously to take in her surroundings. “How…?” she murmured aloud as she realized she was in a vaguely familiar forest. Wasn’t this around the area where my ship crashed, Airachnid wondered. Though it was night, her optics didn’t need to adjust as the half-moon shone almost as bright as the sun. 

Airachnid stood and found herself in perfect condition. She had no gashes from Arcee, no dents from Megatron, and most shockingly of all was that her spider leg were reattached. That was clearly not natural. Who could possibly have helped her and what did they want in return? 

Almost as if in response to her thoughts, a child’s ghostly laughter echoed around the clearing in which she was. Airachnid detected no metallic undertone in the voice, so that meant it was not a cybertronian, therefore, Airachnid ruled, it must be a human. 

“Come out, come out wherever you are, little one,” Airachnid’s voice turning sickly sweet. It would make her day to hear this foolish human’s screams. Airachnid’s gaze swept across the surrounding trees, but she was unable to pinpoint the child’s location. “I just want to play with you,” Airachnid crooned and the giggles took on a sinister manner. Airachnid shivered involuntarily. The poor cybertronian femme had no idea what she had just gotten herself into.

“I want to play with you, as well.”

Airachnid whirled around but the child was nowhere to be seen. She could have sworn the voice had come from behind her. Airachnid’s spark started to beat faster. Perhaps I should find other prey, Airachnid thought as she carefully backed out of the clearing. It unnerved her that the child continued to elude her, especially with her thermal detection upgrade. As far as the femme could tell, she was the only living thing in this forest.

Suddenly, tiny finger tips brushed against Airachnid’s right horn. Airachnid spun around to discover a human girl sitting on a tree branch at optic level with her. Probably about six, Airachnid figured, though she wasn’t the best at judging the ages of humans. Moonlight shimmered across the child’s long brunette hair. And her eye that wasn’t covered by her hair gleamed crimson with a golden iris. The child wore a plain black gown. One of the girl’s hands were moving in a constant circular motion as if beckoning the Cybertronian forwards. The other was completely still, but clutched what Airachnid thought might be a stuffed dog.

Airachnid unconsciously took in all these details within moments as she stared at the child who showed no sign of fear even though she was seventeen feet of the ground not to mention the sadistic spider femme before her. A smile spread across the girl’s face to reveal shiny white teeth. Very pointy shiny white teeth. The child snickered again, at Airachnid’s look of bewilderment and fascination, but it held no malice.

“You found me, you found me,” the girl chanted, “but you can’t catch me!” Without another word, the child rose to her feet and dashed off into the trees. Airachnid took the challenge to spark. The child leaped from branch to branch gracefully with Airachnid in pursuit. The girl glanced back only once, and in that instant Airachnid saw a wolfish beast in place of the child. The next moment the creature was gone and the giggling girl was back, right before she ducked behind the trunk of a tree.

Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, Airachnid thought as she peeked around the tree and found… nothing. Now she was sure her optics were glitching. Not even Arcee was that stealthy. Something gently tapped the top of her horns, and she turned to find the girl in a different tree. Airachnid shot a blast of webbing at the child, but she nimbly evaded before running off again. Over and over Airachnid would hunt the girl down, then lose her, and finally have her attack miss altogether as the cycle continued endlessly.

Airachnid soon discovered that she physically could not stop following the child, after she had begun. The girl’s laughter rang through Airachnid’s audios during the entire game until it was all she could hear. Then silence swept over the forest, as the femme once again lost a visual of her prey.

There, in the clearing where Airachnid had awoken, stood the child motionlessly with her back to the Cybertronian. Airachnid smirked knowing their game would soon come to an end. A very painful one. She drew back one of her spider legs and stabbed the girl from behind. The child seemed to crumple in on herself and began trembling with a dark substance leaking from her back.

The girl never screamed, but she was making a quiet whimpering sound. Airachnid leaned closer, but immediately realized something was off. Liquid shadows poured from the child, and she was shaking with barely controlled laughter. “You’ll have to do better than that.”

With those words the girl turned to face the cybertronian. Her eye flashed scarlet once, and Airachnid felt her joints lock simultaneously. The child left Airachnid’s now limited field of vision, and the femme felt slight pressure on her shoulder. From the corner of her optic Airachnid spotted the girl sitting there grinning at her. Run…. Escape… Flee… these thoughts went through her processor as she struggled against invisible bonds.

Petite fingers were pressed to the femme’s closed spark chamber, and Airachnid tried to recoil. “I take your darkness. Forget it. It is mine. Open your spark to the light, and allow yourself to heal.”

The same fluid that the child had been oozing just a bit earlier gushed from Airachnid’s own spark chamber. The femme was repulsed as it flowed up the girl’s arm and disappeared into her heart. 

“Who or what are you, and what did you do to me?” Airachnid demanded as the child dropped sixteen feet off her shoulder and landed as if it were completely normal. Though her knowledge of humans was lacking, she was certain that most couldn’t do half the things this girl had.

“My name is Enigma Secrets. I am the Watcher in the Shadows and in this world I rule supreme. As for what I did to you…” the child smirked, “you’ll find out soon enough. For now you must rejoin the land of the conscious.”

Airachnid’s vision blurred as pain suddenly racked her body, and she reveled in it. The last thing she saw was Enigma waving farewell as the sensation of falling overtook her…

Through the haze in her processor Airachnid felt something huge, warm, and metallic tenderly touch her servo, before not-so-gently wrenching her from beneath the rocks, and nearly ripping her arm off in the process. She was back in the cavern, she realized so everything else must have been a dream. Or a hallucination. Airachnid barely had time to recognize the big, green autobot, before he dropped her with a yelp. She landed in a heap and didn’t have the strength to move. He must have been searching for Arcee, and when he had unearthed her dainty servo, he had mistaken it for the motorcycle femme’s.

Airachnid could hear the hum of his cannon powering up. She desperately wanted to scurry away into the nearest shadow and hide. Instead she had to make do with bringing her knees in close in a futile attempt to block her spark chamber. 

A deep voice rang out from what remained of the cave, “Bulkhead, no!” 

“Oh come on, Optimus,” Bulkhead’s voice wavered and Airachnid could tell he was close to shedding lubricants. “We’ve searched the entire cave. Arcee’s not here and Airachnid’s still online.” Bulkhead paused to allow his point to sink in or because he was unable to bring himself to say that Arcee was probably offline.

Optimus knelt next to the small femme and studied her injuries closely, “you make an excellent point, Bulkhead, but you must take into consideration that there are other factors in play besides Arcee and Airachnid.” 

Airachnid’s optics met Optimus’s own for a moment and she could tell he had his suspicions on what exactly had happened and clearly hoped he was wrong. “Arcee’s blades are meant for slicing and hacking not stabbing. Arcee couldn’t have possibly have pierced straight through her stomach and out her back. So, Airachnid, who did this to you?”

“Mega… tron…” she gasped. It didn’t matter if she told the autobots or not. She could feel her spark fading more and more as each second past…


	3. Escape

“Ratchet,” Optimus commed the medic, “prepare sickbay.”

“Whoa, seriously?” Bulkhead asked, “Couldn’t we just leave her here?”

“If we are to locate Arcee, then we must learn what took place here and Airachnid is the only one who can inform us.” Optimus didn’t mention what he had seen in Airachnid’s magenta optics to the wrecker. She had appeared lost, if only for a second. However, with his theory of Megatron’s interference confirmed the Prime was becoming increasingly worried about Arcee. A ground bridge opened and Optimus benevolently lifted the petite femme. She had fallen into stasis moments ago, and given her current status, that was very bad news.

The two mechs entered their base to find Ratchet even grumpier than usually. Optimus carefully placed the femme on a berth, and Ratchet approached with no less than six different pairs of stasis cuffs. He placed one around her ankles, her wrists, and the rest went to securing her spider appendages, before activating the berth’s own imprisonment system. “Why don’t you go clean up, Optimus?” Ratchet suggested, “I have everything under control here.”

Optimus was only startled for a second by his friend’s proposal before noticing he was covered in Airachnid’s energon. She must have been leaking far worse than what he had assumed. As Optimus left, Ratchet scanned Airachnid. From the results he discerned that the stab wound on her midriff, Megatron’s parting gift, hadn’t destroyed anything vital although it had nicked her t-cog. So she won’t be able to take her other forms when she kills us all, Ratchet thought, that’s no heartbreak. He figured the damage to her t-cog was temporary, and refocused on the gash that was leaking profusely.

The medic wiped what he could away with a cloth, before applying a heat pad the her back and front. Once the heat pad had caused her energon flow to slow down and congeal, she had less of a chance of going offline from energon loss, and he could grudgingly begin to patch her up. Ratchet removed his wielding torch and began to none-too-gently seal her wound. After he was done, he checked her status. He had successes fully stabilized her, and now all they had to do was wait.

A few hours later, Airachnid’s optic lids fluttered and she groaned though the pain was a distant memory. She opened her optics only to slam them shut again as a bright light blinded her. Airachnid knew she wasn’t offline due to the pain now shooting through her helm. She had just been in the shadowy cavern so where was she now? 

A stern voice shattered her thoughts, “Airachnid, what happened to Arcee?”

That was the Prime’s voice. The femme forced her optics open to find herself in shackles with the scout, the wrecker, the medic, and the Prime surrounding her. No. This was not happening. This couldn’t possibly be happening. Airachnid thrashed against her restraints and started screeching uncannily like Starscream. She had sworn so long ago that she would never be taken prisoner by the autobots again. 

The image of a large, blue autobot mech appeared in her processor. Even though millions of years had passed since she had last seen him, time would never cause his features to fade. She would always remember his ice blue optics as he looked upon her broken form with disdain. His hard features as he glared down at her and she felt herself wilt under his gaze.

The mech faded from her thoughts as Ratchet took initiative and injected her with a sedative. It wasn’t enough to cause her to go back into stasis, just enough to calm her. The medic was willing to try anything just to make her stop screaming. The effect of the sedative was instantaneous. Airachnid ceased her frantic jerking and her shriek died on her purple lips, though she still quivered slightly.

Optimus stepped closer to her, and Airachnid winced. He met her optics and once again felt a torrent of emotions within. Lost… Vulnerable… Broken… She would not appreciate it if he pried any further, so he stopped there. “Where is Arcee?” Optimus quietly tried again and his tone seemed to relax the femme as it would a wild animal.

Airachnid dropped her optics from the Prime’s powerful gaze. “I don’t know. If you didn’t find her sparkless husk, then I would assume Megatron took her aboard the Nemesis. He’ll try to get information from her, specifically the location of this base.” At one time there would have been nothing that could have gotten her to talk, but her loyalty to the decepticon cause had long since died.

Optimus closed his optics. How could he have let this happen? He was suppose to protect his autobots especially from Megatron. Seconds passed in complete silence before he spoke, “Ratchet…”

The medic waved him off. He knew what the prime wanted and he was only too happy to comply. Ratchet walked over to the monitors and typed in a few commands to send Airachnid into a forced stasis. The femme was out in moments, and Ratchet removed the security restraints built into the berth.

Optimus proceeded to pick her up, and take her to the make shift holding cell. If… when they found Arcee she would most likely need to be rushed to the med bay. If she were to see Airachnid there… well… Optimus didn’t think he would fast enough to stop her from putting a bolt through Airachnid’s spark chamber.

Optimus slowly knelt to place the femme on the floor of the holding cell. She looked serene while in stasis, Optimus noted as he exited the cell and locked the door behind him. But there was also a great sadness about her. He wished that the war hadn’t corrupted her as it had so many others…

A few hours later, Airachnid stirred. She was now in an unfamiliar room with no openings except for the door which she knew it was locked just by looking at it. Airachnid tried to stand but found the act rather impossible given the six stasis cuffs prohibiting her movement. The femme had to make do with pushing herself into a sitting position, so she could better study her restraints. They were the typical standard version, and she knew she could break out given the time.

A child’s laughter emanated from her right, and Airachnid turned to find the self-proclaimed “watcher in the shadows” and ruler of the dream world. Airachnid groaned, “and here I thought I was finally awake.”

“You are,” Enigma snickered, “I’m just here to remind you of your responsibility.”

Airachnid sighed, “and that would that be exactly? Last time I checked I abandoned all ‘responsibilities’ when I left the decepticons.”

“To spite an enemy, and repay a debt.”

“And that’s not vague at all,” Airachnid growled.

Enigma’s eye seemed to take on a rouge hue. “You’re a smart ‘con,” she snarled, “I’m sure you can figure it out.” Enigma’s eye returned to it’s natural golden color, and she shook her head as if to clear it. Airachnid had the strangest feeling that that hadn’t been Enigma speaking. The wording and the flux in her voice had sounded incredibly familiar to the femme as well.

“You should probably leave now,” Enigma smiled as though her emotions hadn’t just reversed seconds ago. “You have about a minute before the autobots realize it’s missing.”

“Does it look like I-” Airachnid’s optics landed on the shiny object in Enigma’s hand. The key card to her cuffs! Airachnid frowned, “I suppose the price for receiving the key card is the ‘spite an enemy, and rep-’”

“You don’t have to, but it would be nice.”

Enigma tossed her the key card which she awkwardly caught with her bound servos. Once she had removed all her restraints, Airachnid stood and allowed herself a few seconds to stretch her stiff joints. It would be only too easy to escape the autobot base now. Airachnid activated her t-cog to shift into her drill mode. Her extra legs twitched before settling down exactly as they had been. What in the worlds… She tried again with the same results, and Enigma started to giggle at her less than productive escape attempts.

“That medic must have deactivated my t-cog!”  
Airachnid’s exclamation caused Enigma’s laughter to increase. “…Not quite…,” the girl wheezed between giggle fits, “…your t-cog… was damaged… by Megatron…”

Airachnid hissed, but managed to control her temper. So breaking out of the autobot’s base would be slightly more difficult than she had originally suspected. She still had other methods. 

Airachnid stalked over to the nearest wall, before placing a finger in her mouth. The femme released her poison glands. With her now poison coated finger she drew the outline of a door onto the wall. The acidic substance ate through the metallic walls within seconds. Airachnid was certain that the autobots would have someone guarding the real door, so she figure it would just be safer to make her own. She turned back to Enigma, but the girl was already gone.


	4. Escape

Airachnid shook her helm in confusion. How had that human child left without her notice? There was no time to ponder this, Airachnid decided. She needed to focus on finding a way out of the autobot’s base. Now that Enigma wasn’t hear to laugh at her, Airachnid tried to shift forms again. This time she tried her beast mode and, much to her delight, her t-cog worked properly. 

Airachnid quickly scaled the wall, as she wondered if her helicopter mode still functioned. She would probably discover that it didn’t at some critical point when flying was her only option. Airachnid transferred herself to the hallway’s ceiling. The bots would never see her coming from above, unless of course, she happened to run into the Prime. Airachnid shivered at the thought. There was no way she could possibly get away from him.

The femme rounded a corner to find… yet another hallway with no exit in sight. Airachnid grumbled to herself. All these corridors looked exactly the same to her, then again, the Nemesis wasn’t much better. From the corner of her optic she spotted movement. Airachnid barely had time to flatten herself to the ceiling before the black and yellow scout appeared. He had his blasters out and was carefully searching for something. 

Enigma had been right. Airachnid had barely been out of the cell for a minute before the autobots knew. Bumblebee made his way down the hallway, and Airachnid stayed motionless high above the unknowing ‘bot. All he had to do was keep moving, the spider femme thought. She wouldn’t bother him if he just continued on his way, because it would be far easier to get out of here if her presence stayed undetected.

Of course he just had to look up. Bumblebee began to blast at her with one gun, while contacting the others over his comm. “Found her,” was all the scout had time to whir to the others before being hit with the spider’s webs. Though the rest of him was pinned, Bumblebee managed to free his left arm to continue firing at her. 

In a stroke of good fortune, Bumblebee hit one of her spider legs, and she fell from the ceiling. The ground came upon Airachnid too quickly and she landed on her back with a moan. The femme reacted on instinct and rolled to the right just before Bumblebee could put a bullet through her helm. Airachnid shot out another blast of webs and finally captured the resistant scout.

With the hunt over, Airachnid allowed herself a moment to look over her injures, even though she knew the blaster shots would have alerted the other autobots to her position. Her spider leg was only attached by a bit of wiring and dangled limply. Terrific. Even if she could take her helicopter mode, that rotor would never support her.

The spider femme stood and approached the bound scout. Bumblebee glared at her fiercely. “Do your worst. I don’t fear you,” he buzzed.

Airachnid’s entire body went rigid and her optics widened as a long since forgotten memory overtook her…

Smoke and ash darkened the skies of cybertron as the city around them burned. The sounds of a battlefield could be heard in the distance, but all the high-ranking decepticons were here. They stood like silent sentinels as they watched their silver leader. The light from the surrounding fires gleamed across Megatron’s muscular torso, and caused his features to take on a skull like appearance. The gladiator grinned cruelly and Airachnid’s spark went cold. In that moment Airachnid recognized him for what he was. Death having taken a physical form.

Fingers entwined with her own, and Airachnid glanced at her younger brother, Wildclaw. The green youngling was covered in soot and he shaking. Airachnid squeezed his servo within her own, as they stood slightly behind their parents. If Megatron’s attention had been on her, Airachnid doubted she would have been able to stand much less glare back at him defiantly as the autobot youngling did before Megatron and his officers. 

Megatron slammed a servo into the yellow and black ‘bot and sent him flying. The youngling crashed to the ground and sparks flew as metal was scraped against metal. The warlord’s disregard for life awoke within Wildclaw his innate sense of right and wrong. Airachnid realized that her brother was about to make the reckless and costly mistaken of running forwards to help the other youngling. The youthful femme pulled him into her embrace to not only restrain him but attempt to comfort him as well. 

Wildclaw resisted for a few seconds, but gave up eventually. Instead, he clung to his sister as lubricants ran down his face plate. The siblings went unnoticed by the other decepticons who had optics only for Megatron and the autobot youngling. Wildclaw buried his face into Airachnid’s throat, as the sounds of crunching metal and carnage continued. But the autobot youngling never screamed…

Airachnid closed her optics. She couldn’t watch this vile display anymore. Wildclaw was still sobbing soundlessly, and Airachnid felt a rising nausea. She had just decided to turn off her audio receptors when a voice penetrated her jumbled thoughts. Airachnid looked up in time to see the young autobot struggle to his knees and glowered at Megatron before speaking for the first time while in the decepticon’s presences. “Do your worst. I don’t fear you.”

Megatron lost it. In an act that had no other purpose than to inflict pain, the gladiator’s blade shot from his right arm. Airachnid’s optics were almost unable to follow Megatron’s next movement due to the speed. She wouldn’t have believed it, either,  
if not for the burst of energon that had erupted from the autobot’s throat. The youngling collapsed at Megatron’s pedes. Airachnid realized she had not been the only one to have witnessed this brutal action as her brother’s optics never left the crumpled form of the other youngling.

The warlord didn’t offer the crippled autobot a second glance as he turned to his officers and bellowed, “Return to your assigned duties!” He transformed into his sleek Cybertronian jet and shot off into the burning sky as his followers scrambled to do as their leader demanded. Soon the only ones left were the siblings. Wildclaw tried to go over to the leaking autobot, but Airachnid stopped him once more. Whether it was to spare him the grisly details or prevent him from getting in trouble she wasn’t sure.

Airachnid shook her helm at him. “Don’t worry Wildclaw. I’ll take care of him. Your absence will be noticed before mine will, so get going,” she nudged him away. Wildclaw was instantly reassured. He knew his older sister would make everything better, so he turned to leave, but glanced back at her. 

Wildclaw’s optics had dried, but his voice trembled as he swore to Airachnid, “I will never be a decepticon.”

He transformed into his jet mode, and Airachnid watched his receding silhouette before making a silent promise of her own deep within her spark, “I will never let Megatron or any other hurt you…”

Airachnid’s thoughts returned to the wounded youngling, and she went to check on his condition. The young scout was leaking from multiple wounds, but the one on his throat was by far the worst. Airachnid was no medic, but she had watched a few at work. She quickly produced a strong silk-like spider web, before binding his wounds. This particular kind of webbing wasn’t sticky so it wouldn’t reopen the younglings injuries when it was removed.

With her nimble fingers she bound his wounds as tightly as she dared. Airachnid glanced up and her gaze met the young autobot’s. She had been hoping he was unconscious. In the youngling’s optics lay a question that he could no longer voice. Why? 

His question made her pause, but only for a moment. “Not all decepticons are like Megatron. We’re not all sparkless killers.”

The scout tried to nod in understanding, but Airachnid stopped him so he wouldn’t cause the gash in his throat to worsen.

Airachnid touched the scout’s arm. She was searching for something, something that she knew all autobots carried in case of an emergency. Airachnid was not disappointed, as she found a small metallic device. She activated the autobot distress beacon, before glancing back at the youngling. His optics were now unfocused and glazed over.

Airachnid darted into the shadow of a crumbling building to wait. Not fifteen minutes had passed when she heard approaching autobots. From her vantage point, the spider femme could see an orange and white medic leading the group followed by a blue femme and a horned red mech. The medic was holding a datapad and the other two had their guns out.

“Careful, Ratchet,” the blue femme cautioned, “This is most likely a trap.”

The only response the medic gave her was a grumpy hmpf. Then the medic’s optics widened in horror as he beheld the youngling’s mangled form. “By the All-Spark…,” the medic muttered as he rushed to the little scout’s side. Airachnid quietly slipped away and the autobots never noticed her presence. When she had told the young autobot that not all decepticons were evil, he had believed she had been referring to herself. She hadn’t been…

Back in the present time, Bumblebee was more than a little freaked out. He assumed Airachnid had been just about to rip his spark out when she had suddenly frozen. He hadn’t seen any sign of her being hit by the Immobilizer, but he wasn’t about to rule that option out. A few seconds passed and Airachnid regained all movement as she began to advance on the pinned scout once more. 

A single claw like digit forced Bumblebee’s chin up, and exposed his neck. He really hoped she wasn’t about to bite him. He knew death by her poison would be particularly unpleasant. With a second digit Airachnid traced his scar. Why was she acting so creepy? he wondered. Well, creepier. 

“I see your injury mostly healed, little bug,” Airachnid murmured.

Bumblebee’s optics widened at her soft words and gentle touch, “Were you there?” 

A smile played across the femme’s lips. She wasn’t all that surprised he didn’t remember. He had been, after all, a little over half-dead and delirious. “Yes, I was,” Airachnid whispered before placing a gag over the scout’s mouth and racing down the hall. Bumblebee watched her until she rounded a corner and disappeared from view. He was now officially disturbed.


End file.
